Kan Agari — Restaurant in Tokyo

The worst restaurant I’ve ever visited in Japan. I’ve visited Japan multiple times and tried multiple restaurants and this one is by far the WORST experience I’ve ever had. First of all, the seats are assigned to you at random even though you make reservations weeks ahead and if you’re unlucky, you get sat at on the floor. And don’t get me wrong, I’m Korean and I’ve sat at dining tables on the floor all my life, but it was the most uncomfortable seat with my leg/back almost touching people in the next table. With the 5000 yen cancellation fee, it’s ridiculous that you don’t have an option to change your seats.

Second of all, I understand the table charge which is common is Japan, but they charge foreigner fee. I wonder what is the purpose of this fee? What different service do foreigners require that they feel the need to charge extra fee? We ordered couple appetizers since we knew that the rice and the actual robatayaki was going to take about 40 minutes, but even the appetizers that were meant for the wait took more than 30 minutes, with one of the appetizer not coming out until after the Robatayaki came out. We actually had to call our waitress and she had no idea what did or did not come out. When our appetizer finally decided to come, we were done eating everything. The food was MEDIOCRE at best and the service was just terrible. I wouldn’t waste my time visiting this...

We LOVED this place. This place is such a gem that even celebrities from Asia were spotted dining here under the radar. One of my most favorite places in Japan! Food is yummy, experience is top notch and the staff are so lovely and kind. So fun to watch and experience.

NOTE: mandatory service charge ¥800 per person, and “compulsory” appetizer (otoshi of sashimi) ¥660 per person. So that’s about almost $10 USD a person. Keep that in mind, especially if you have a party of 4, like we did. That’s $40 USD additional. I wasn’t bothered by it since I went for the experience. If you’re strategic enough, you can probably tell them beforehand you don’t want the otoshi.

Some tips: the mushroom is FANTASTIC. we liked them so much we ordered them 3x (so 12 total for 4 people). DON’T order 4 onions. ONE onion can be easily shareable. Order only ONE sake if you’re a light drinker; the bottle is big enough it’s easily shareable. The rice, while tasty, is not my cup of tea for something that takes 40 minutes and over 1000 yen. I’d rather use the money to eat more mushrooms or another sea...

Ah - I really wanted this place to work, but unfortunately it was a big let down for me. Few bullet points to consider here:

1. Price range is off. I’ve been to many places in Tokyo in various price range, but it was certainly on a very expensive side. A cup of green tea cost 500 yen, a cover charge is close to 700 yen per person, and a bowl of rice 650 yen per person.
2. Understand that the place got popular on Youtube - so maybe that’s why it feels understaffed. My main dish didn’t come out after an hour, and I ended up cancelling one after waiting for another 30 min.
3. Ventilation is an issue that the restaurant needs to fix for the health of staffs and customers. The place is located in 3F without windows, and is sealed tight. So it’s really smokey inside to a point where it is a bit suffocating. Not an okay level of smog even for a Japanese robatayaki standard.

Robatayaki is a cool format to experience, but maybe we will try other places again.

Staff did their best to serve overflowing customers, so no...